What is Karate?

Karate is the ancient traditional combat of Japan. Its name means combat without weapons or with the empty hand and comes from kara (hand) and you (empty).

It has its origin in ancient China; and it is estimated that it is 2000 or 2500 years old, from China it went to the island of Okinawa, where it was formed as we know him today, and it is from Okinawa where he went to Japan, where the masters jealously guarded their secrets. Until the Japanese government institutionalized its study by spreading it to Japanese schools and universities. For this, the government brought together the most renowned masters in karate, and from among them it chose Gichin Funakoshi, who was elected for being a teacher. of Primary and not precisely because of having greater or lesser knowledge of Karate, focusing the choice of it, in his ability to transmit the knowledge.

It is Gichin Funakoshi, who introduced Karate proper to the West, taking root mainly in France, Italy and Germany. It is in France where it had a great fury and modifications, carried out by Masatoshi Nakayama, a disciple of Funakoshi and renovator of the system, who used Kung Fu techniques and other arts. with them to perfect the Shotokan Style, which is one of the most widespread in the West and of which currently Hirokazu Kanazawa 10th Dan, is one of its greatest representatives.

The suit is white and means purity, the degrees are measured in belts, white, yellow, green, blue, red, brown and black which is the highest degree of knowledge; the black belt is guided by Danes, Dan is the degree of perfection in Karate, which are marked with golden stripes at the tips of the belt, culminating in the TENTH DAN, the maximum perfection in the Karate.